


Friends on the Other Side

by ertrunkener_Wassergeist



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Horror, POV Outsider, Police, Police snooping around demon business, Rating May Change, Short Chapters, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2019-12-25 17:49:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18266369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ertrunkener_Wassergeist/pseuds/ertrunkener_Wassergeist
Summary: Capulet is haunted by a strange chain of destruction and murder cases. If they could just find out where the bodies are, that would be great. Then Sophie wouldn't have to crawl around in said dangerous back alleys. And maybe the culprit could just fall into her arms so that she could be done with this, thank you very much. But that isn't going to happen, right?Or: A police officer is running around making friends with things she doesn't want to know about. Why did that thing follow her home?





	1. Chapter 1

Officer Sophie Ackleson couldn’t fathom that this kind of destruction had been wrought in a single night. Not even that. The call had gotten in not even ten minutes ago. She and her partner Mark Olsen had been the closest patrol this side of Capulet City.

She grimaced when she stepped on some of the empty shells littering the ground everywhere. This side of town had never exactly been what one would call safe, but for some time now things had been escalating and no one at the station had any idea what was going on.

Well, she thought as she examined one of the deep gouges in the white light of her flashlight, nearly no one. If one was to believe Crazy Beth there were demons and monsters out here ready to swallow you whole. Sophie had no idea why she hadn’t been fired yet. She heaved a soundless sigh and walked back to the car. It was time to call forensics. Again. For the second time this week. She could just imagine their faces and had to suppress a grin. If she had to suffer this nightmare of unexplainable property damage and potential murder, so could they.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sophie is going to murder Crazy Beth. And that little shit Evan. And her boss. She just needs to find a way to get away with it. But she will find one. Eventually.

The blood was everywhere. Sophie had to wonder why she hadn’t seen it last night, then again, she hadn’t really been looking. It was bad enough that stuff like this happened let alone so often in God damned Capulet. Blood should be expected. And the body was missing again.

She leaned back in her honestly not that comfortable office chair and stared at the photograph on her desk. Forensics had done a good job, as always, even as they had bitched and moaned about it. No one wanted the graveyard shifts. No one.

Sophie sighed, put the photograph aside and tapped her pen against the paper of her half-finished report. What else was there to write? That she’d straight up turned around as soon as she’d been sure that this was one of _those_ scenes? Her boss wouldn’t exactly be happy about that. He’d been frothing at the mouth ever since this mess started. A loud bang nearly made her jump out of her skin in surprise.

“What the fuck Evan?”

That little shit just laughed his left hand braced against the huge stack of folders he’d just dropped on her desk. On top of her last pack of chewing gum. Her glare could have frozen hell itself.

“Boss-man wants you to take over those,” Evan said ignoring her glare. It just made her intensify her glare. She would make him twitch one day.

“And what are those exactly?”

Evan grinned at her skeptical tone. She poked at the folders with her pen. They were messy, like thank-God-this-is-over-and-I-don’t-want-to-see-this-ever-again messy, and old. A hand full looked newer, but some looked like they hadn’t seen the light of day for years on end. The smell of dust itched in her nose and made her grimace.

Evan leaned forward conspiratorially and spoke in a lowered voice: “Crazy Beth finally convinced boss-man that all those incidences, including the one last night, are connected in some way and as the newbie in the station you got voluntold to do the job. Personally, I think he just agreed to shut her up.”

Sophie groaned. Loudly. This couldn’t be happening. Why now? Why her? She’d been at the station for nearly a year now. She wasn’t a newbie anymore!

“So, I’m to do what exactly? Read all of that and run around looking busy?” Because she sincerely doubted that more would come from it. She was going to murder Beth.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The parking violations and other things of Dante no last name. Shouldn't that be illegal?

Who the fuck was the last person to look at those files? It had to have been some kind of cave troll. No self-respecting woman would stand for this mess. She was going to die. She was so going to die and it wasn’t even funny. Suppressing the urge to glare at Evan a few cubicles down Sophie took a calming breath and shoved a piece of chewing gum into her mouth. The cold and sharp taste of peppermint helped to stave off the oncoming migraine and kept her calm enough to actually try to make sense of this fucking mess.

Her desk, normally the only thing next to her uniform that she kept clean and orderly because it was work, was now cluttered with open files, loose handwritten notes she couldn’t decipher even half of, photographs that kept falling out of the files as if there was a black hole in there somewhere and papers that had no business being there. Seriously, why was there a ticket for parking violation for a Dante no last name?

Sophie plucked the ticket up like it might poison her and squinted at it. Wasn’t a person legally required to have a last name? Not her problem. Carefully noting down the name of the recipient – Dante –, the date of its issuance – over how many years ago now? – and the officer doing it – Horace Helge – in her excel chart, she set it back down onto the slowly growing file of seemingly unrelated stuff that she would have to screen for this because it was an _important assignment_ given to her by her _boss_.

Urgh.

A sharp teeth showing grin slowly stole its way onto her face. Maybe she could get Evan to screen all those parking violations and speeding tickets and complaints about loud rock music in the streets at ass o’ clock in the morning. Revenge after all, was sweet.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sophie no. Don't go feeding the demon cat. You don't know what it might do.

This was a bad idea. Sophie couldn’t even begin to express to the hypothetical person next to her how bad of an idea this was. At the end of her first day on this case she stood here in a dark alleyway at night between two warehouses and squinted at the photo in her hand in the white shine of her flashlight.

Yup, this was the right place she could see the deep gouges on the ground and on the walls that were also liberally peppered with bullet holes. For a moment she fumbled with the notebook under her arm before she could open and thumb through it until she reached the right page. According to the files – and her notes – the bullets had all been from the same two pistols as it had been for all the other cases she had had a chance to look at until now. Caliber .45 ACP.

So it was either one person with two pistols or two people. Personally, her money was on the latter.

Carefully tucking her notebook and the photograph away her now free hand found one of the gouges. Forensics said most of them were made by a huge bladed weapon most likely some kind of claymore which was utterly ridiculous. What kind of person runs around with a sword in this day and age?

Suddenly Sophie froze. The hairs on her neck stood up on end and goose bumps wandered icily up and down her back. It felt like she was being watched. Like she was being seized up to see if she would do as the next meal of whatever was watching her.

Resolutely shaking herself out of it and licking her dry lips she minutely moved her head. Was there movement in the corner of her eyes? A shadowy monster with four menacingly glowing eyes and long twisted horns? Ignoring her heart threatening to jump right through her ribs she forced herself to turn around.

Her flashlight shook as its ray landed on a cat hissing aggressively at her. It was a truly ugly cat with scraggy dirty grey fur, a missing ear and a mangled front paw. Its eyes were a strange sulphuric yellow, but Sophie ignored that in favour of being relieved.

What the hell was wrong with her? Crazy Beths talking must have affected her more than she thought. Was it infectious? She hoped not but maybe she should try to avoid the other woman in the future. Carefully crouching down she stared at the still hissing cat. It hadn’t moved. Strange. Maybe it couldn’t? That paw looked like something much larger gnawed on it.

“Here kitty, kitty.”

Oh, God was that dumb. She should have gone straight home then she could be reading her book right now but here she was crouching in a dirty alley talking with an ugly and obviously hurt cat. A cat that was now staring incredulously at her. She was getting delusional.

Sophie sighed. She couldn’t in good conscience leave the cat here. Who knew what could happen to it. Carefully rummaging around her backpack for the rests of her lunch and never letting the cat out of her sight she wondered if it was already too late and Crazy Beth had already infected her. Chained salami in hand she started to slowly inch towards the cat.

“Don’t be afraid, I don’t want to hurt you. You look like you could use some help. How about some salami? It tastes really good. We should get a vet to look at that leg to see if there is something to be done about it because it honestly doesn't look very good.”

The cat just stared at her unmoving and unblinking. When Sophie was close enough it snatched the salami right out of her hand and swiped with her healthy paw at her leaving bloody scratches on her arm.

She stumbled back cursing loudly and landing ungracefully on her ass. Goddamn, that hurt like a bitch. That cat was an asshole. That cat had also vanished into the nightly shadows of the alleyway. Today was just her day, wasn’t it?


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything is normal and that's just a cat. IT'S JUST A CAT!

The damn cat was following her. It was in every shadow she cared to look into, and those shadows themselves… Sophie made a truly valiant effort to ignore them. The feeling of eyes being constantly on her was driving her crazy and it was only a damn cat.

Only a cat.

Nothing more.

…

Seeing the entrance to police department in front of her she risked another glance. The shadow she’d seen writhing from the corners of her eyes suddenly stood still and she could see the sulphuric yellow eyes of the cat glowing from there centre. She could feel her face contort into a grimace that was actually a smile and her hand reaching out to the cat.

All of her instincts were screaming at her to turn away and never look back.

Sophie kept smiling and started to make soft noises to coax the cat out of hiding but it just hissed at her and vanished. She sighed and squinted at the shadows. They were just that, the shadows between the wall and a huge flower pot.

Something pricked her in the side causing her to nearly jump out of her skin. Deep laughter followed and Sophie whirled around to glare at Evan who just stood there howling and holding his sides.

“Evan, you asshole! What’d you do that for?”

“Y-you should’ve seen your face! What did that old flower pot do to you?” he stuttered through gasping breaths before he started to laugh again.

Like the mature person she was, she resisted to kick him into the shins for this. Barely.

“Nothing,” she said and raised her chin.

There were times she liked Evan who was only a few years older than her but sometimes he was just such a brat. Couldn’t he let her be when she was obviously busy? Stalking through the door and into the station without waiting for him she looked at the shadows one more time.

Sulphuric yellow eyes were staring back at her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I noticed I should probably apologize for the weird jumps between BE and AE. I normally write in BE but my computer does autocorrect in AE and I can't quite catch it all. Since I'm not a native speaker concerning English I apologize for that. (Also the comma rules. I don't get them.)  
> Hope you all have as much fun with this story as I have writing it.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where Sophie can't read hell, thank you very much, sees Crazy Beth talking to someone we all know and a cat is captured.   
> Warning for blood.

Sophie was so ready to start the day at work. Her huge mug was full of steaming coffee and next to it was a new pack of chewing gum, her computer turned on without any complaints – not like Marks, who always had problems with his – and Crazy Beth wasn’t there yet to bother everybody and their mother. Then her eyes fell on the uncharacteristic mess of files, photographs and papers on her desk. She so wasn’t ready to start right now.

Grimacing she let herself fall into her chair and pulled the photographs closer to her. After all the useless stuff yesterday, now the more important work of organizing and analyzing the pictures. Seriously, who was working at the archives right now? They were doing a horribly horrible job. Maybe she should file a complaint. Luckily the pictures were all clearly marked with dates and even the exact time they had been taken. She plucked the photo she had taken with her yesterday out of her notebook and started working.

Most of them were boring shots of crime scenes she already knew. There were pictures of puddles of blood that looked like somebody had been dragged through, bloody footprints, strange claw marks, collapsed walls, fried cables, and a whole slew of property damage to varying degrees of severity.

No bodies, though. Nothing, nada. Only parts of ripped skin and destroyed clothing. The blood found on the more violent scenes looked like it had belonged to more than one person but the analysis was always inconclusive. Something about the blood being contaminated. What kind of sick fuck did something like this? Sophie grimaced and put a picture aside that showed a blood splatter on a grimy wall in a vague humanoid shape.

The next picture made her pause. It showed another wall and more blood, but that was not what had caught her attention. Well, not exactly, for on the wall in the picture was something written. At least she assumed that that’s what it was. There were symbols that looked like a weird mix between cuneiform and those satanic symbols teenagers loved so much these days.

Sophie looked at the time stamp. It was less than a year old. Why hadn’t she heard of this? Shrugging she started looking for the corresponding file and found it minutes later stuck between the legs of her desk and her rubbish bin. Typical. Absolutely typical.

A quick glance through the pages showed her that no one had any idea what the symbols might mean. She buried her had in her arms in frustration. What exactly had she expected? She glared at the file.

The scene was an old and abandoned warehouse near the river. A fisher had called the police in the very early morning because he had heard gunshots and screeching and seen flashing lights. When the officers had arrived no one had been found, only blood and some kind of dust or ash and more blood.

How the fuck was she supposed to close this case?

She stood up and stretched. She needed more coffee for this clusterfuck. In the cubicle next to hers Mark was working on some report and a few desks in front of hers Evan was goofing off while his computer processed a missing car report. At the desk by the reception Crazy Beth sat talking to a woman with short black hair and corded muscles. Sophie hoped dearly that this wasn’t another one of Crazy Beths… followers.

The breakroom wasn’t far from her desk, just across the room. Hoping for a freshly made pot of coffee she opened the door and immediately froze. From the shadows underneath the sink two yellow pinpricks stared up at her.

Sophie stared, blinked, and stared some more.

How had the cat gotten here? This was getting ridiculous. Resolutely marching over and grabbing the cat by the scruff of its neck she suppressed a wince of sympathy when she saw just how mangled the front paw was. It yowled and hissed but Sophie just grimaced at the grubby feeling beneath her fingers and glared. Enough was enough. She had other things to worry about than moving shadows and creepy cats.

“Now listen here, furrball, you will quit following me around like this. If you want a place to stay, you can but not before we went to a vet. Otherwise you run off and don’t come near me again, got it?”

The cat went still and stared at her in contemplative silence. This was all kinds of crazy but Sophie would take it any day over a cat induced headache. Then the cat started to purr and it was a sound like nails scraping across a blackboard. She flinched.

Okay, time for an early lunch break. After she had taken care of the cat there hopefully wouldn’t be any more distractions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, yeah.   
> Our lovely cat-not-a-cat gets a human (it's more the other way around but don't say that where it can hear you), Hell has its own writing system and a wild Lady appears in the backround.   
> Over the next few chapters more canon characters will show up.  
> I'll try to warn in the chapter summary if something shows up that may trigger someone but know that I tagged this horror for a reason. Creapy imagery should be expected.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The cat-not-a-cat is actually pretty handsome and Sophie hopes that talking to creepy stalker cats isn't a sign of insanity.

The cat was, apparently, a he. Well, that was good to know. He was also throwing a hissy fit at the vet who had been nice enough to take him on even if Sophie hadn’t had an appointment. Bless the guys patience with that little fur monster.

Who looked… really good. After the bath to end all baths. She was so glad she hadn’t to clean that mess up. Under all the dirt and grime that ragged grey fur turned out to be a sleek black, dark as a shadow. It was strange. Normally cats were all so crazy about being clean. Not this one it seemed.

About the leg the vet couldn’t do much. The wounds were old and surprisingly well healed, even if it couldn’t support the cat’s full weight anymore. She needed to think about a name for him. Oh God, she was really doing this, wasn’t she? Adopting the creepy stalker cat? She couldn’t take it back now. Otherwise the money she would have to pay the vet would be wasted and she hated wasting money.

The little gremlin hissed again when the vet vaccinated him for a million different things and swiped with his claws. The vet just pulled his hand away, deed already done, and grinned.

“Such a lively fellow,” he chuckled.

The cat glared and his shadow bubbled for a moment, as did the blackness of his fur. Sophie blinked. He sat there with as much dignity as a cat could muster, which was a lot, and looked at her in silent expectation. _What now?,_ he seemed to ask. Carefully picking him up, she marveled at the feel of his cleaned fur under her fingers. It was soft and cool kind of… intangible? Like the shadow of a tree in summer.

“Thank you for your time,” she said to the vet.

“No need to thank me. That’s what I’m here for after all. If you and your new companion need anything else you know where to find me,” he answered with a smile that made goose bumps travel up and down her arms.

The cats’ tail swished in agitation and Sophie thought it was better to retreat now.

Outside the veterinarian clinic Sophie lifted the cat to eye level. “And now we will go to my apartment and you will stay there until I come back, understand? You will not ruin my furniture, not follow me and you will behave in general.”

Was talking to a cat a sign of insanity? Sophie dearly hoped not. Otherwise she was so, so screwed. As if she hadn’t been before already.

The churches clock tower nearby signaled her that it was already past her lunchbreak. She groaned while the little gremlin meowed in indignation when she pressed him against her chest and started to jog down the near empty street. Thank fuck was it Friday already.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that's that.  
> Next time... there won't still be any action. But the one after that. Promise. ^^;  
> Why does anything I write have to move so slow?  
> Me: Just get to the action already.  
> My brain: There have to be foundations!  
> Anyway, I have a plan (more or less) for the next few chapters and I should be able to keep updating every few days considering the chapters are so short.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by tumblr. If you're interested visit me there under  
> https://ertrunkenerwassergeist.tumblr.com/


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